Method of manufacturing garment bags



, 1950 `B. A. LEvlT'r METHOD oF MANUFACTURING GARMENT BAGS Oct. l0

.Filed Feb. 27. 1947 FIG. 10

' INVENTOR BENJAMmALEvm ATTORNEY `latenteci 'ct 110,

METHOD 0F MANUFACTURING GABMENT BAGS Benjamin A. Levitt, Newark, N. J.,assignor to A. L. Siegel Co., Inc., New York, N. Y., a corporation ofNew York Application February 27, 1947, Serial N o. 731,206

9 Claims. l

This invention relates to an improved method of manufacturing a garmentbag.

Garment bags into which various articles of clothing may be placed forprotective purposes, which bags are adapted themselves to be hung inclosets or the like, take many forms. The most common of these formscomprises a rectangular cross-section so that the individual garmentsmay be individually hung and removed from the garment bag preferablythrough the side thereof without the necessity of removing the entiregarment bag from its suspension. Such bags have been formed of clothand, more recently, ofV plastic sheeting, the cloth or plastic sheetingdefining the walls of the bag and being maintained so as to define arectangular or any other desired cross-section by means of suitableframework disposed at the top and optionally at the bottom of the bag.

Garment bags of this nature have' become exceedingly popularcommercial-wise but as constructed heretofore they present certainpotential defects which render them more or lessjinefilcientin theattainment of their desired end.

One of the purposes of such bags is to protect the clothing storedtherein from the effects of dirt and moisture in the air. Obviously themore seams involved in the formation of the bag the less protection isafforded against these deleterious iniiuences. As ordinarilyconstructed, the top, bottom, front, back and side walls of the bags areof separate strips or sheets of material each the total number of seamsin the garment bag is' only reduced to nine.

Moreover, those seams which are most susceptible to spreading orunsealing, to wit, the seams at the edges of the top and bottom walls ofthe container, are not eliminated. While the weight of the bag itself isgenerally inconsequential, it quite often happens that garments becomedis;

engaged from within the bag and fall to the bote'` 'tom thereof and thefar from inconsequential weight of these garments is then sup-portedalmost exclusively by the seams Joining'the top and bottom walls to theother walls. This strain is applied directly to the seams underdiscussion, particularly because those seams conform to the aslconfiguration of the top and bottom framesv which give shape to thegarment bag.

In addition to these inherent constructional defects, impelling economicconsiderations mitigate against the prior art construction. A verysubstantial portion of the cost of manufacture of a garment bag residesin the assembly thereof and in particular in the seaming thereof. rhus,any method of construction which would minimize the number of seams isobviously commercially advantageous. In the past it has been necessary,when joining the top or bottom wall of a garment bag to the front, backand side walls thereof, to form four separate seams corresponding to thefour sides of the top or bottom surface in four separate operations. Assoon as one seam was completed, it was necessary for an operator to turnthe fabric 90 so that the next seam might be formed. To attach both thetop and bottom, eight separate operations were necessary.

Moreover, the problem of providing a plurality of sheets of differentsizes called for considerable tailoring work and required an extensiveinventory. y

It is the prime object of the present invention to provide a novelmethod of manufacture of a garment bag having a minimum of seams.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such amethod which results in a bag in which the seams are so located withrespect to the framework of the garment bag as to minimize the strainsapplied thereto during use of the bag. l

Another object of this invention is to provide such a method in which aminimum of separate sheets of material, and in the preferred embodi-`While the present invention is herein described,

with particular reference to the manufacture of a garment bag, it willbe appreciated that in its broader aspects it relates to any hollowcontainerl formed of flexible material and to the methodV of forming thesame. It will alsobe apparent that when the term seaming is used, anytype of seaming maybe employed. As herein specically described, theseaming is accomplished by means of a stitching or sewing operation, but

it will be appreciated that when thermoplastic sheeting is employed, theseaming may be acsuccessive stages in the formation of the garment bagof the present invention from a single flexible sheet;

Figs. 4, and 6 are top views of Figs. 1, 2 and 3, respectively;

Fig. 'l is a perspective view of one embodiment of the top frame for thegarment bag;

Fig. 8 is a similar View of the bottom frame;

Fig. 9 is a perspective View of a completed and expanded garment bagmade according to the present invention With parts thereof broken away;

Fig. 10 is a detailed view on enlarged scale of the side wall-top walljoint formed therein; and

Figs. 11 and 12 are views corresponding to Figs. l and 2 but showingstages in the formation of a garment bag from a plurality of sheets offlexible material.

The method of making the garment bag of the present invention will rstbe described, the resultant improved construction of said bag becomingapparent as the method is developed. That method, considered in itsbroad aspects, comprises superimposing two layers A and B of flexiblesheeting (Figs. 1 and 11). This sheeting may be cloth, either plain orornamented, or any of the well known plastic sheetings now on themarket.

The sides C and C of the two-ply formation thus produced are then foldedover the body portion D thereof (Fig. 2) so that at the thus formed edgesections 2 and 4 a four-ply` formation is produced. One or both of theend edges E or E', which edges are preferably linear, are then seamed asby stitching 6, this seam including all of the plies of the folded edgesections 2 and l and of the body D. The resultant structure is thenturned inside out.

When the thus formed bag is caused to expand so that its top and bottomsurfaces conform to the desired outline, as by the use of top frame 8and bottom frame I0, it is found that for example the top and bottomwalls F and F of the bag are each composed of two portions G and H(Figs. 9 and 10), each of which are integral eX- tensions of the frontand back walls I2 and I4 respectively, these two portions being joinedtogether by a single straight seam I6 intermediate said end wall F.

It will be noted that by this method of construction only a single seamis necessary to form the top of the garment bag, this seam being linearso that it may be made in a single seaming operation, thus materiallydecreasing the cost of manufacture of the bag, and that the seam is solocated on the finished garment bag that any strains imposed by theweight of articles on the bottom of said bag is insulated from said seamby the action of the frames 8 or I8, the frames taking much of thestrain and thus ensuring that the seam will remain firm and thus prolongthe life of the bag and enhance its protective effect.

Figs. 1 through 10 illustrate the preferred embodiment of the presentinvention in which a complete garment bag is manufactured by forming butthree seams. A single sheet I8 of flexible material is first reverselyfolded on itself so as to denne the two-ply formation illustrated inFigs. 1 and 4. The side C thereof is initially open and that sidetherefore must be seamed as by the stitching 20, this seaming operationbeing so carried out as to incorporate in the thus formed seam anopening and closing means generally designated 22 which may specificallytake the form of a zipper or slide fastener as illustrated in Fig. 9.This opening and closing means 22 provides for access to the interior ofthe container for removal and insertion of garments and also, in theformation of the container, provides an opening for a purposehereinafter to be described.

The sheet I8 is preferably provided with a pair of eyelets 24 forcooperation with the suspending hooks 26 of the frame 8, and the sheetI8 may be interiorly reenforced by means of fabric tabs 28.

As illustrated in Figs. 2 and 5, the sides C and C of the folded sheetof Fig. 1 are folded over the body D thereof an amount equal to one-halfof the desired depth of the container, that is to say, one-half thedesired width of the top wall F and of the side walls 30 thereof. Thetop and bottom end edges E and E of the thus folded formation are thenlinearly seamed as by the stitching 6 and 6 (Figs. 2 and 5). The thusformed object is then turned inside out via the opening in side Cprovided by the opening and closing means 22. This condition isillustrated in Figs. 3 and 6 and represents a collapsed garment baghaving a front wall A, a rear wall B and infolded side walls 3D, the topand bottom end edges E and E.' of all of said walls being linearlyseamed together.

The collapsed garment bag of Fig. 3 may be expanded and caused to assumeits desired shape by inserting therein, through the opening provided bythe opening and closing means 22, the top and bottom frames 8 and I8.The former of these may consist of a metal framework 32 of desired shapehaving a cross-bar 34 provided with a plurality of corrugations 36adapted to receive the hooks of hangers on which garments are mounted sothat said garments may be sus- Ipended within the garment bag, and withsuspending hooks 26 so mounted as to project up from the cross-bar 34through the eyelets 24 of the sheet I8 so that the garment bag itselfand the garments stored therein may all be suspended from the hooks 26.The frame I6 may be a thin cardboard, plywood or metal sheet ofappropriate shape.

The construction of the garment bag as described is such that, ifproperly designed, the

bag itself upon expansion will closely conform to the frames 8 and Illwithout the necessity of any special steps. It,A will be noted that whenthis conformation has taken place, tucked-in portions 38, best shown inFig. 10, will form at the junction of the side walls 3U and the top andbotto-zn Walls F and F. These tucked-in portions constitute integralextensions of the side walls 38.

The garment bag of Fig. 9 has by this method been constructed of asingle flexible sheet with but three seams, one intermediate of one ofthe side Walls 30 and containing the opening and closing means 22 andone intermediate each of the top and bottomwalls F and F', the lattercles resting on `the bottom thereof is primarily resisted by theintegral and unseamed portions of fabric which are adjacent to the metalframework 32 or the sides of the bottom frame it.,

The seams I6 and it will therefore be insulated from said strain sothatthe life ofthe bag `and its protective action toward the garmentsstored therein are materially increased.

Although to form a container from a plurality of rather than from asingle sheet involves the making of at least one additional seam, and tothat limited extent detracts fro-m the benefits of the presentinvention, it is sometimes necessary or desirable that this mode ofconstruction be employed as, for example, where single sheets ofsufcient size for e, complete container cannot commercially oreconomically be obtained. The first two stages of such a mode ofconstruction are illustrated in Figs. 1l and 12, which correspond toFigs. l and 2, and it will be apparent that the only difference involvedover the method previously described is that the edge C must be searnedas by stitching Otherwise the stages of construction are identical and`need not be here repeated. lt will also be apparent that each of theindividual sheets which are superimposed one or the other may itself beformed of any desired number of individual strips or sheets.

By the method of construction above described a garment bag or otherhollow container may be more expeditiously and economically formed thanhas heretofore been possible and the container produced thereby ispossessed of desirable structural features which eliminate or mitigatemany of the defects inherent in containers of this type which haveheretofore been manufactured. VNot only is the container thus producedenhanced in strength and durability by virtue of the location of itsseams, but its protective action is also intensied by virtue of theminimum number of seams embodied in its construction and by virtue ofthe fact that they are so located that their tendency to part isminimized.

The particular embodiment of container here illustrated, a garment bagof conventional shape, is merely illustrative of the many applicationsto which my invention can be put and therefore many variations can bemade in the details of the method steps and constructional features hereshown without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined inthe following claims.

claim:

l. The method of linearly seaming a surface of a container formed fromflexible sheeting, which comprises superimposingone layer of said 6plygformation over the bodyr thereof. linearly seaming together all ofthe plies of the folded sides and body at the top and bottom end edgesof said formation, and then turning the thus formed object inside out.

3. The method of linearly seaming surfaces of a container formed fromflexible sheeting which comprises superimposing one layer of saidsheetling overVv another producing therebya two-ply formatiomone side ofsaid formation having an opening therein, folding both sides of saidtwoply formation over Vvthe body thereof, linearly seaming-together allof the plies of the ,folded sheeting over another producing thereby atwosides and body at the top and bottom end edges of Asaid formation,and then turning the thus formed object inside out via said opening.

4. The method of linearly seaming a surface of'aA container formed fromflexible sheeting to vproduce the container end which comprisessuperimposing one layer of said sheeting over another producing therebya two-ply formation, folding each side of said two-ply formation overthe body thereof an amount equal to one-half of the desired depth of thecontainer end, linearly seaming together all of the plies of the foldedsides and `body at the end edge of said formation, and'then turning thethus formed object inside out, the container end being thereafter formedby spreading the formed walls of the container.

5. The method of linearly seaming a surface of a container formed from asingle exible sheet which comprises folding said sheet in half andproducing thereby a two-ply formation, folding both sides of saidtwo-ply formation over the body thereof, linearly seaming together allof the plies of thefolded sides and body at an end edge of saidformation, turning the thus formed object inside out, and forming thecontainer end by spreading the formed walls of the container. 6. Themethod of forming a container having a .rectangular cross-section fromflexible sheeting which comprises superimposing one layer of saidsheeting over another' and separate layer producing thereby a two-plyformation, seaming yboth open side edges of said two-ply formation whileincluding an opening and closing means formed walls so as to give thecontainer a rec-A tangular cross-section.

'7. The method of forming a container having a rectangular cross-sectionfrom a single exible sheet Which comprises folding said sheet in halfproducing thereby a two-ply formation, seaming the open side edge whileincluding therein an opening and closing means, folding both sides ofsaid two-ply formation over the body thereof, linearly seaming togetherall of the plies of the folded sides and body at the top and at thebottom end edges of said formation, turning the thus formed objectinside out, and spreading the formed Walls so as to give the container arectangular cross-section.

8. The method of forming a container having a rectangular cross-sectionfrom flexible sheeting which Icomprises superimposing one layer of saidsheeting over another and separate layer producing thereby a two-plyformation, seaming both open side edges of said two-ply formation whileincluding an opening and closing means in one of said side edges,folding both sides a rectangular cross-section from a single flexible 10sheet which comprises folding said sheet in half producing thereby atwo-ply formation, Yseaming the open side edge while including thereinan opening and closing means, folding the sides of said two-plyformation over the body thereof, linearly seaming together all of theplies of the folded sides and body at the top and at the bottom endedges of said formation, turning the 8 thus formed object inside out,inserting appropriately shaped top and bottom frames therein, andcausing the top and bottom of said container to conform thereto.

BENJAMIN A. LEVITT.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the f'lle ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 529,690 Arkell et al Nov. 27,1894 1,298,257 Rand Mar. 25, 1919 15 2,236,115 Schwartzman Mar. 25, 19412,239,133 Waters Apr. 22, 1941 2,265,075 Kneutter Deo. 2, 1941

